AB de Villiers Reveals Jonty Rhodes Running Out Inzamam Ul Haq In The 1992 World Cup Triggered His Ambitions As An 8-Year-Old To Take Up Cricket
BCCI

AB de Villiers, the former South African batsman, has revealed that watching Jonty Rhodes pull off the stunning run-out of Inzamam Ul Haq during the 1992 World Cup, left a great impact on him as an eight-year-old and propelled his ambitions of becoming a cricketer.

Jonty Rhodes, one of the greatest fielders of all time, stunned the cricket world when he pulled off the stunning run-out of Inzamam Ul Haq during the 1992 group-stage encounter against Pakistan in Brisbane.

AB de Villiers Reveals Jonty Rhodes Running Out Inzamam Ul Haq In The 1992 World Cup Triggered His Ambitions As An 8-Year-Old To Take Up Cricket
Is it a plane? Is it a bird? No! Its Jonty Rhodes [Photo-Twitter]
The site of Jonty Rhodes dislodging all the three stumps while being suspended in the air is a part of the folklore and AB de Villiers, he as an 8-year-old, always used to practice the run-out, braving injuries to master it.

De Villiers admitted that he regrets not pulling off the same run-out during his international career.

“Jonty Rhodes was the standout. Once again, from a young age, he had the biggest impact. When I was 8 years old, I saw the run out live in the World Cup 1992. That had a huge impact on me,” AB de Villiers told BBC London’s Kevin Hand for Middlesex cricket.

“I practiced that run out every day of my life. I had grass all over, blood but I had to practice that run out. I never had the opportunity to do that run out in my career. But it still inspired me so much to do special things on the field, to take catches for the team. That’s the way Jonty played. That’s the way I always wanted,” he added.

 

‘It was a huge dream-come-true for me to just meet him’- AB de Villiers on Jonty Rhodes

AB de Villiers Reveals Jonty Rhodes Running Out Inzamam Ul Haq In The 1992 World Cup Triggered His Ambitions As An 8-Year-Old To Take Up Cricket
AB de Villiers (Credits: Twitter)

AB de Villiers, who himself was a brilliant fielder apart from being a ‘once-in-a-generation’ batsman, said that he was awestruck when he first met Jonty Rhodes but later the duo became good friends.

“We became friends. It was a huge dream-come-true for me to just meet him. And then a year or two later, he was the fielding coach in the Proteas side. It was a bit of a blur, because it was a dream-come-true to have him around. We played tennis during cricket tours. We still stay in touch. He travels the world. He is that kind of a guy. He loves life. He just gets on his motorbike and rides for hours. He is a bit of a go-getter. He is still the same,” de Villiers said.

Jonty Rhodes too, recently heaped praise on AB de Villiers where he said that the former South African captain is one of the best fielders to have ever played the game.

“I have loved Suresh Raina, but the best fielder I have seen since Jonty Rhodes has to be AB de Villiers, he just moves so well, I think someone like Ben Stokes is at all the hotspots, Ab de Villiers reads the game as well, and he is a batsman so that helps him in reading the game, from my perspective, de Villiers has to be the best fielder,” Rhodes had told Pommie Mbangwa during the latters instagram live session.

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